A Season of Goodwill?

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Stories of feast and frost from our correspondents around the world. Yolande Knell hears from the Palestinian Christians of Bethlehem – who feel a special duty to keep alive a seasonal message of compassion and hope, no matter which denomination they belong to or which of the THREE different dates for Christmas Day they celebrate. Nick Thorpe meets a Hungarian mayor who’s broken down stereotypes about the country’s Roma minority, with his community food projects and tough line on crime – in his own words, “a Gypsy who works”. Mike Wendling is our Grinch who steals (or at least slams) Christmas with a diatribe explaining why, as an American citizen himself, he DOES NOT love New York. And Joanna Robertson savours the romantic back stories, as well as the delicious treats, of some of the finest chocolatiers and confectioners in Paris. There’s a whiff of gunpowder - as well as dark chocolate and Chanel perfume - in the air… Photo: Laszlo Bogdan, Mayor of the Hungarian village of Cserdi, at a local vegetable stand on July 29, 2014. Going through rubbish and fighting in the street, this Roma mayor has turned his patch around with unusual methods, slashing crime and unemployment and fighting stereotypes about his background in the process. (ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Images)